The Long Trail to the Paramo

Frailejones sunflowers thrive high in the Andes in the ecosystem known as the paramo. Amy took close up of a new fern frond.

Amy and I hiked to the legendary Laguna de Iguaque (Iguaque
Lake) that local Muisca Indians say is the birthplace of humanity. The grueling hike climbed 2,700’ or 900
meters to 12,500’ high into the Andes.
We hiked through rain forest and above tree line to the paramo – a high
alpine region where the ancient lake hangs in a box canyon. We hiked all day though muddy trails in the rain
forest, up long, steep, rocky falls and above the trees to the hidden lake. This is the first time Amy hiked over 12,000’
and it was worth it! We’re getting
closer to being ready to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu that will go over
13,800’.

To get to the trail, we ordered a 4WD truck taxi for seven
am sharp – pretty early for me. When we got to the front gate of our Airbnb at
6:58, Caesar, our taxi driver, was backing up his dusty truck to pick us
up. Caesar told us how he hiked in the
mountains all the time and already did an hour hike that morning starting at 5am.
We spoke in broken Spanish and English
as we drove along the Andes.

After only a few minutes on bumpy, dirt roads, we got stuck
behind an 18-wheeler that kicked up so much dust that it looked like we were
driving through thick brown fog. People waiting
on the side of the road for the bus held handkerchiefs to their faces as the
dust cloud enveloped them. Caesar couldn’t
pass and had to back off from the dust cloud so we could see. Now I knew why his truck was covered in so
much dust.

After a few minutes behind the semi, Caesar turned onto an
even smaller mountain road to Iguaque Sanctuary of Flora and Fauna (SFF
Iguaque) that was designed to preserve the historic and unique ecosystem around
the lake. We got to the ranger station
at 7:40 and had to wait for 20 minutes to pay 52,500 Columbian Pesos ($17) per
person to enter the park. A ranger told
us that it should take us three hours to get up and three hours to get back. We hit the trail at 8am.

The trail was a cobblestone path for the first mile and difficult
to walk on. We crossed over a clear
running stream at 2,900 meters or 9,500’ – about the elevation of Breckenridge,
CO. The trail turned into hard packed
dirt and mud through a high rain forest. The forest was so thick that we could
only see a few feet into the trees.
Butterflies and a few birds could barely fly though the forest that was
a mixture of bamboo, vines and moss covered trees. Ferns, orchids and other arboreal plants were
thick in the trees like shown in this picture.

Some arbroeal plants are growing on the tree limb. On the left is some thick bamboo.Some pretty pink flowers.

We climbed over tree roots and small mud puddles for the
next couple miles and the trail always climbed.
Amy used her new hiking poles for the first time and they helped her
navigate the rough trail. After a couple of hours in the forest, the trees
thinned and we reached a rock fall that would be a beautiful cascade if a river
ran over it. The rock fall turned out to
be the trail and this is where I felt in my element climbing from rock to rock. Amy wasn’t used to this type of climbing at
over 11,000’ and she was winded and tired climbing over and around the rocks. The rocky ridge rose at about a fifty degree
incline for 800 vertical feet. When we
finally reached the top at over 12,000’, we were in the paramo where no trees
grow. Without trees, we had expansive
views over the surrounding mountain ranges to distant mountain ranges or
cordilleras as they’re known here.

Amy next to a flowering bush.These flowers fell on the ground, so I picked them up and put them in my hand. Amy took this picture of me hiking up the trail surrounded by mossy tree roots.

The high Andes have been separated from the rest of the
world for a long time and a unique ecosystem known as the paramo has developed
over the eons. The paramo is too cold
and windy to grow trees (tree line is defined by the altitude where trees can’t
grow anymore because it’s too cold), so special plants grow here that can thrive
the cold. The main thing the plants use
to survive the cold seems to be fur. Like
animals that live in the snow, these plants have a furry texture that helps
them trap the sunlight and keep them warm enough to photosynthesize.

The most distinct plant is the frailejones – a perennial sunflower
that grows to 10’ tall. We were lucky because
these Joshua Tree-like posts were in bloom.
Surrounded by furry leaves that look like rabbit ears, each frailejones sported
yellow bouquets that teamed with bees.
Special bees lives in this high country and pollinate the flowers. Here
are a few pictures from the unique environment.

Here’s a video of many of the plants and flowers on the trek.

The trail flattened, and we traversed the mountain towards
the lake. We had spectacular views
looking down on farmer’s fields thousands of feet below in the valley. The
trail wandered into a box canyon where the lake sits.

The lake is very historic because of the Muisca creation
myth about the lake. The Muisca people
were one of the four great pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas with the
other three being the Maya, Aztec and Inca.
The Muisca myth says that the goddess Bachue came out of the lake with a
boy in her arms. When the boy grew up
into a man, she married him and they made passionate love. They loved each other many times and
populated the world. When the man got
old and it was time for him to die, the happy couple went back into the lake in
the form of snakes. Kind of an interesting
creation myth like the Garden of Eden.

We ate lunch in the beautiful valley overlooking the
lake. We were tired because of the three
and a half strenuous hour hike up. It
took us a half an hour longer than what the park ranger said, so I began to
worry that we would miss our bus back home. If we missed the last bus, we’d
have to hitchhike and I don’t think Amy would have liked that! We had four hours to get down to the bus stop
– which was an hour below where Caesar had dropped us off at the park entrance.

We made good time until we reached the rock fall. Amy struggled with her short, tired legs to get
down some of the rocks. She slipped and fell
a few times on her butt, but Amy is persistent and quick. She mustered her strength and kept going to
meet the bus. We made it to the ranger station in two and a half hours – an hour
faster than it took us to go up. I hoped
that someone could give us a ride from there, but no cars were there and they
didn’t have a phone to call Caesar. We’d
have to walk another hour.

There was little time to rest so we started down the
mountain road. The rugged road was much
easier to hike than the trail and we made it to the bus stop by 3:30 by hiking
the last distance in about 45 minutes.
We had 30 minutes to spare. All
that worry about missing the bus for nothing.
The bus turned out to be 30 minutes late too, so we sat at the bus stop
for an hour!

We made it to the main square of Villa de Leyva in perfect time for happy hour. We ate an empanada and drank some German beers while the sun set on the square. Amy did a great job and has changed a lot in the year she has met me. She used to call herself a city girl, but now she’s climbing above 12,000’ to see the shallow lake where humanity began for the Muisca.

Amy hiking up the trail.Here’s where we had lunch. The lake is seen right above our heads.Here’s the 9th station out of 10. We were in the paramo and you can see the frailejones scattered across the hillside.Here’s the last picture of the hike taken from the bus stop. That’s a millstone behind Amy’s head.Amy crossing the creek at the start of the hike.